3 Flights, 2 Days, & 1 Adventure Later
New York City to London, London to Helsinki, and Helsinki to Tallinn, the journey was quite impressionable.
Dad and I take London by storm. We also met up with my cousins and family friend.
One month ago yesterday, I left my little hometown in Pennsylvania to head to the airport. I remember feeling giddy with excitement, slight anxious, but mostly so ready to embark on something new. This experience has been in the works since freshman year when I first stepped into my home university’s study abroad office. Truthfully after the crazy semester I had, I was most definitely ready to start fresh.
Originally, I was meant to fly out of Newark Liberty International Airport which is close to home. But of course, the universe had other plans for me, and my flight tickets were cancelled. Honestly, thank God for my dad. We may butt heads a lot, but I probably would have cancelled my entire trip if it wasn’t for him. (Kidding, not really though.) He took care of booking the flights and was able to rebook the tickets. We would be leaving from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York instead.
The flight from NYC to London was smooth enough. As part of COVID precautions, we had to always wear our masks. We were also required to show a negative PCR test in addition to our Covid vaccination cards. Furthermore, some airlines were requiring passengers to fill out a passenger locator form prior to arrival to their destination. Mostly for contact tracing purposes. We filled one out for England as well as Estonia.
The duration of the flight was approximately six – seven hours. I didn’t really have a problem with that. On previous trips I’ve taken to visit India, the flights can be around 18+ hours, not including layovers. The flight was maybe 75% full and it was just me, my dad and one other person sitting in our row. The person sitting next to me was also going abroad for school. He’s doing his master’s somewhere in England. I wouldn’t say that I’m a complete introvert but I’m definitely not super extroverted as well. Which is why striking up this conversation with a completely random stranger was surprising for me. I guess going abroad has made me bolder in a way.
One of the exciting aspects about having a layover in London was that I was able to meet up with my cousin and her husband. The last time I saw her, it was seven years ago in India. They came to pick up my dad and I from the airport and we were able to sightsee just a little bit. We saw Buckingham Palace, Tower Bridge, and The Royal Courts of Justice amongst other areas of interest.
Just some casual touristy pictures.
Y’all let me tell you wearing four-inch block heels was not the smartest idea I had. In my head I was thinking “If I can walk about New York City or Philadelphia in these, I’m sure London will be fine.” It was not fine, but beauty is pain. I’m joking slightly. When I go back in December, I’m investing in a pair of comfortable walking shoes.
I had my first experience riding the London Underground which is what they call their subway system. I’ve ridden plenty of trains and subways in the States and naturally I’m used to there being a lot of space on the train cars. That wasn’t the case on the Underground. It was very narrow and small. Not in an uncomfortable way, but more in a “Oh wow if I lean a little to the right, I’ll practically be on top of the person next to me.”
A lot of my favorite Bollywood movies were filmed in London as well, so it was kind of a surreal moment for me to physically be in that location. For example, in the opening scene of Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (aka the best movie ever), the main character’s father is feeding pigeons in Trafalgar Square. Naturally, we just had to go. It was a very full circle moment.
After we finished up some sightseeing, we got a bite to eat before heading back to the airport. The next flight was London to Helsinki, which was about two and a half hours. At this point I hadn’t really slept so I was running on empty. Usually, I have no issue falling asleep on airplanes, but I think the nerves and excitement was keeping me awake. Also, all of our flights were night flights. By the time we got to Helsinki and boarded our last flight, it was 11:30pm. The final flight from Helsinki to Tallinn was the shortest flight I’ve ever taken. The entire duration was less than 30 minutes. It felt like I blinked and suddenly we were in Estonia!
This was probably the smallest air craft I've ever been on.
And here friends was when all my troubles began.
